


It Can't Be Science

by Asukachan07



Series: WestAllen AUs [12]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, CSI Barry Allen, F/M, Iris West-centric, Journalist Iris West, OTP Feels, POV Multiple, Season 1 Re-write
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-12
Updated: 2020-01-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:34:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22221124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asukachan07/pseuds/Asukachan07
Summary: What season 1 could've been if Iris had been given the journalist story arc she deserved.
Relationships: Barry Allen/Iris West
Series: WestAllen AUs [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1471967
Comments: 21
Kudos: 44





	It Can't Be Science

**Author's Note:**

> Huge disclaimer: this is a WIP that I found after digging DEEP into my WestAllen stories file. It's so old that I forgot that it existed. I skimmed it (please forgive any lingering mistake) and thought that it actually was an okay read, so I'm posting the first part to encourage myself to write the other two.
> 
> I hope that you'll enjoy it!

What were you supposed to do when the best friend you were in love with was in a coma? How were you supposed to cope not hearing his voice for months on end?

Iris West didn’t know, but Dr. Wells and Dr. Snow had told her that there was a chance that Barry could still hear her even though he was unconscious. So she talked to him, a lot, reminiscing the thousands of memories they’d made together since Barry was still shorter than her.

Iris didn’t tell him that she was coming alone lately because she wasn’t talking to her dad beyond greetings. She didn’t mention that she had a new apartment, still littered with unpacked boxes. She didn’t mention how she’d gone to a third date with Detective Pretty Boy and had felt exhausted from pretending to enjoy herself. She didn’t mention how it was only her second week interning at CCPN and already Iris felt like she’d never be given the opportunity to be a great investigative reporter.

She didn’t want to mention all these experiences, because Barry hadn’t been with her to live them. Iris had never thought that, after college, she’d go through any major life event without Barry being right next to her to make live commentaries about her poor judgments in everything except her outfits; without him scaring her about the symptoms of caffeine overdose; without him mocking her obsession for brownies.

Sometimes Iris would just sit there, at Barry’s bedside, her hand next to his unmoving one, waiting for another spark of static electricity to shock her. 

Iris had dreamed of Barry the night that had happened. She’d dreamed about that time she couldn’t sleep because of a thunderstorm when they were twelve. She’d sneaked into Barry’s room, for once being the one who needed comfort, or maybe he’d needed comfort too because he was quick to draw his blankets for her. He’d distracted her with nerdy babbling, talking about how lightning was made in the clouds, and making her count the time lapses between the strikes of lightning and the corresponding booms of thunder so they could tell if the storm was getting closer or further away.

Iris already loved him back then, but her love had been simple, innocent, undemanding.

When she was fifteen, her love had turned into a selfish, suffocating, all encompassing feeling.

It took her a while to label her new love for Barry Allen. At first she forced herself to act as if nothing had changed, but when Barry started dating Becky Cooper Iris couldn’t bear not to come first in his life anymore. Actually, she was fine settling for second, as long as the first was Barry’s father Henry. That’s why she decided to become a cop when Barry hinted at his goal to become a crime scene investigator. She’d imagined them being intense and professional, catching bad guys while looking great like on the CBS shows. Proving Henry Allen’s innocence would take a while, but she trusted that they would manage it before they’d get married.

But Iris’ dad opposed her aspiration to be a cop so strongly that, for years, Iris forgot about coming second in Barry’s life. Without a clear path to follow, she focused on herself, turned into a social butterfly, and enjoyed her last year of careless youth to the best of her abilities.

When she had enough of being the popular girl that everyone liked, she looked beside her and realized that Barry wasn’t there. No, he’d walked ahead of her a while ago, starting his masters in criminology while she was still debating switching from her psychology major in her third year of college.

Putting her social life in the background, Iris had tried to catch up to her best friend. While Barry easily let her loop her arm around his, Iris knew that they weren’t of the same world anymore. He was a brilliant scientist, and she was a typical millennial with no concrete plans for her life.

It wasn’t until Barry pushed her to take journalism to fulfil her ever elusive sociology requirement that Iris found her way again.

She could become an investigative reporter. Expose the truth with her writing, the only skill she could brag about, just like Barry aimed at exposing criminals with his science. They wouldn’t work with each other—the police and the press were eternal frenemies—but she’d still feel close to him, if not worthy of him.

Her dad hadn’t been happy about her new career choice, but she hadn’t cared about his opinion at that point. She’d been too happy to finally ground her feet into the muddy terrain that was adulthood next to Barry, nevermind that the mud barely reached his ankles while it reached her calves.

On days like today, Iris wanted to talk to Barry about her feelings for him, but Dr. Wells and Dr. Snow had been monitoring him a lot.

Dr. Caitlin Snow was very pretty and, while not quite a nerd, very smart. Not long ago, Iris had thought that women like her were the perfect match for Barry. She would’ve set him up with a few already had she known any in her social circle. It was good that she hadn’t, because now that her life was finally looking up—a legitimate job and her own place—Iris furiously wanted Barry for herself. He was the last piece of the puzzle to the perfect picture of happiness she’d been dreaming since before she knew how to use a flat iron.

“I’ll come back later,” Iris announced quietly as she looked at her watch.

Her dad would come soon, and she didn’t want to see him. She’d made sure not to visit STAR Labs when he was there, ever since their fight about Eddie.

So, Iris went to her tiny apartment, read a series of articles her boss Mason Bridge had recommended, and organized her blog.

Since the night of the particle accelerator explosion, weird things had been happening in Central City. People reported odd sights, like individuals vanishing into thin air, spotting large groups of people looking identical to each other, or electricity failing in parts of town that didn’t match the power grid distribution.

At first Iris had thought that CCPN had hired her to write about those weird phenomena, as it was the main subject of her blog—which got her an interview with them in the first place—but Mason Bridge had told her that they liked her writing style and anyway they didn’t have a paranormal beat.

Iris was replying to a comment spouting conspiracy theories on her blog when she heard her phone ring.

“Hello?” she immediately answered, restraining the hope in her voice—it was STAR Labs. Had Barry woken up?

“Miss West,” Dr. Wells’ somber voice said, and even though Iris didn’t know the man well she could tell that this was his ‘bad news’ voice.

“No, please no!” Iris cried just as she stumbled off her futon, tears making it hard for her to find her keys.

“He’s not gone yet, but we don’t have any evidence that he’ll make it through the night at this rate,” the aloof scientist announced. “With his father in jail and Detective West out on patrol, you are the closest next of kin…”

“I’ll be right there,” Iris interrupted, unwilling to hear the rest of the sentence.

They wanted to get him off his life support system, didn’t they? Why? He’d been doing just fine for the past nine months!

Iris took three minutes to breathe deeply before and after driving to STAR Labs. She chanted ‘please come back to me, Barry’ before exiting her car to enter the mostly abandoned building.

She turned her determined walk into a jog when she saw that the lighting was flickering everywhere, like in the hospital last year after Barry’s accident.

Iris entered the room where Barry had been sleeping just in time to see Caitlin Snow and Cisco Ramon flailing around as they switched the cables around Barry, machines beeping uncontrollably and the lights pulsing overhead.

“Miss West,” Dr. Wells said from further down in the room, his wheelchair approaching in jerks. 

He was holding a stack of papers, held on a clipboard like those forms they made you sign at the hospital.

“What’s happening? I thought you could keep him stable!” Iris cried, tears slipping down her face.

“His heart started beating too fast even for our equipment, I’m afraid,” Wells explained as he pointed at the scene in front of them with his chin.

It was then that Iris noticed the packaged blood.

“A transfusion?” she interrogated the genius.

“His heart is beating so fast that his blood isn’t pumping properly in his body,” Wells told her. “We’ve been cycling his blood artificially to prevent necrosis, but the current of electricity his body is producing is compromising our equipment. I am sorry, Miss West.”

More beeping resonated in the room before many machines just shut down, and this time the two young assistants froze.

“The AED is dead,” Caitlin Snow announced apologetically as she looked at Iris.

“Barry, no!” Iris screamed in despair as she rushed to her bestfriend’s bedside, pushing Cisco out of the way.

He looked so peaceful, so still, like he was just sleeping, why was he leaving her—

_Zap._

The spark, again, but this time Iris saw the strings of electricity travelling from Barry’s hand all the way to her elbow.

For a second, it was as if her and Barry were in a different place, a sort of blue void surrounded by a lightning storm.

“Barry?” Iris called, but he was still asleep, he didn’t respond, didn’t even open his eyes—how she missed his beautiful eyes!

Suddenly Iris felt hands gripping her and pulling her away from Barry, and she only struggled for a few seconds, quickly realizing that Snow and Ramon were back to trying to save her friend.

“What?” Iris said quietly as she took in the room, its lighting back to normal, the machines beeping again, at more regular intervals.

“Fascinating,” she thought she heard Dr. Wells say, but when she turned to him he seemed intensely focused on the work of his assistants.

It might have been five minutes or five hours later, but Barry was back to how he’d been before Iris had left the lab.

“He’s stable again,” Dr. Snow confirmed with a sympathetic smile before she stepped towards the exit of the room along with Cisco and Dr. Wells. “You can talk to him, if you want.”

“Thank you,” Iris said weakly as she stumbled to the lone chair by Barry’s bed.

“Hey Bear,” she greeted him as she held his hand, hoping for another spark, for another vision of that weird place.

Of course, nothing happened, but Iris found comfort in the familiar feel of her best friend’s large hand.

“Please come back to me, Barry,” she asked as fresh tears came out of her eyes, blurring his face. “I love you Barry, I love you so much, and I can’t do this anymore. I won’t make it without you.”

She dropped her head on their joined hands, sobbing quietly as she feared that the man she was in love with would never wake up to hear her confess her feelings.

* * *

Barry Allen would’ve sworn that the voice of Iris was what had woken him up, but when he finally stopped flailing around and the two strangers tucked him back into his bed, he recognized 'Poker Face' playing in the background. 

Lady Gaga’s song had brought him back? Okay.

Cisco sounded cool, Barry wished he’d known him in college. Dr. Snow seemed a bit too young to be so stern, but that wasn’t his business.

Dr. Wells had watched over him for nine months! Oh wow.

Seeing the rubbles of the particle accelerator and hearing about the human casualties of the explosion brought Barry’s mood down, but hearing about Iris visiting him and talking to him while he was in his coma brought some spring back into his steps.

Dismissing Dr. Wells’ concern about his health—he felt better than ever, if terribly hungry—Barry walked a few minutes away from STAR Labs and took a cab home. Well, at Joe's house, because obviously his apartment lease had run out.

He used the key under the flower pot and rushed into his childhood room to grab some cash in order to pay the driver.

Uncertain that Joe would be happy to find the fridge empty when he returned from the precinct, Barry changed into comfortable clothes and went to Big Belly Burger.

Now, Barry ate more than his lanky body seemed to require, but even he was surprised when his appetite kept growing at the fourth cheeseburger he wolfed down. He switched to milkshakes to fill his stomach faster, and the liquid calories seemed to do the trick.

He then went to the Jitters close to CCPD, hoping to surprise Iris.

He didn’t see her, but thankfully her coworker Stacy was there, and she told Barry that Iris now worked at CCPN.

The young man was only shocked for a few heartbeats. Of course a lot had happened in nine months. He’d have to insist they celebrate Iris starting her career in journalism during the weekend!

Central City Pictures News was on the way to CCPD, where Barry was eager to return and start work right away. He had a lot of stored up energy to use!

It still felt odd to Barry that he’d spent so long in a coma. It felt as if he’d just woken up after a normal day.

Well, Iris didn’t have the habit of jumping on him to say hello on normal days, but he could get used to that. Minus the stares around them, obviously.

“Oh my God! You're awake!” his best friend exclaimed, happiness lighting up her already radiant face. “Why didn't S.T.A.R. Labs call us?” she questioned as she patted him around.

“I just woke up,” he informed her with a smile, but she didn’t seem reassured by it.

“Should you even be on your feet?” she asked, looking him up and down and patting his torso and arms as if she was looking for anything amiss.

“Iris, I'm ok,” he insisted.

“I watched you die, Barry,” Iris let him know, her voice emotional. “You kept dying and your heart kept stopping…”

Barry grabbed one of her probing hands and placed it above his heart.

“Still beating,” he commented calmly.

“Beats really fast!” she exclaimed, and now that she said it, Barry could indeed tell that it was way above the normal range for him.

But he felt fine? It was definitely an improvement to being in a coma.

Watching one of Iris’ colleagues trip over a stack of papers in slow motion felt very abnormal, but Barry ignored it.

He couldn’t quite ignore Joe’s new partner, none other than Eddie Thawne, when he commented that he’d been missed with a look that belied his words.

Figuring out why Detective Pretty Boy suddenly couldn’t stand him became Barry’s last concern when he managed to disarm a criminal at the precinct in a fraction of a second, then after he ended in a garbage truck after running at a speed close to that of a sports car.

Returning to S.T.A.R. Labs to ask quite a few questions had been a good idea, as not only did Dr. Wells have a theory to explain why Barry was so fast now, but he also had the equipment to test out Barry’s abilities. 

While the spark of lightning he’d generated had brought back the terrible memory of the night of his mother’s murder—a fact he oddly felt comfortable sharing with perfect strangers—the news that fast healing was part of his powers had made him confident enough to leave the safe and controlled environment of S.T.A.R. Labs again. 

Barry sneaked into his lab at CCPD and spent half an hour glancing at the files he’d be tackling the next day. When he started feeling hungry again, he went back to Jitters for a snack. 

He lost his appetite when he saw Detective Thawne chatting with Iris quite familiarly outside the coffee shop. As in, he was standing right in her personal space. No one but Joe and Barry himself ever stood that close to Iris without her giving clear signals that she needed the person to step back.

But Iris seemed to be apologizing to Eddie—maybe something to do with Joe?—and the smile of the too good-looking detective was definitely flirty.

And that guilty look on Iris’ face when she spotted Barry watching the two of them? Nine months in the coma couldn’t take away the CSI’s ability to read his best friend’s tells.

“What were you two talking about?” Barry asked when his legs brought him closer to Iris, his eyes following Detective Thawne’s retreating form.

“Nothing important,” Iris replied, her voice half a pitch higher on _important_ , the way it always was when she told him a white lie.

“Iris,” he chided, playfully at first, then a chill settled in his guts as he remembered the first time she had seen Eddie, the way she’d looked him up and down and commented that he was ‘pretty.’

Oh.

Nine months in a coma, and Barry Allen woke up to his fifteen years crush dating her father’s partner.

Was that the universe’s humorous idea of balance? Powers in exchange for his chance with Iris? 

The speed and fast healing weren’t worth it.

“Nothing happened!” Iris promised as she grasped his arm with both hands, equally still able to read his tells after nine months of separation.

Barry tried to hide the dejected look on his face by frowning, and he stepped away from her, forcing her to let him go when he started walking.

“Isn’t that against regulation, for Joe’s partner to get involved with you?” he pointed out bitterly after a few awkward minutes of silence.

“If you gave me a second to explain,” Iris almost shouted as she finally caught up to him, speed-walking to compensate for his long strides, “I’d tell you that Eddie and I are not involved!” she ended as she grasped his arm again, this time pulling his left hand out of its pocket. “Barry!”

“Then what were you two talking about?” he demanded sharply as he stopped and turned completely to face her.

“It was just a couple dates, okay?” she informed him as she dropped his hand, almost throwing it back at him. “And yeah Dad was against it, and we even had a fight, which came at the right time because I’d just moved out—”

“Wait, what?” he asked, shocked by the information.

“Yeah, you have a lot to catch up to, Bartholomew,” Iris pointed out as she shoved her hands in the pockets of her jacket. “Half of my boxes are still unpacked and I only have a tiny futon and my bed because who’s gonna help me move all the furniture I’m saving my meager intern salary to buy…”

Her voice cracked, and Barry’s anger faded to let guilt take over.

So many things had happened to Iris in the past months, and he hadn’t been there to support her as a true best friend should have. He’d been spending hours with Dr. Wells, Cisco and Caitlin, nerding out about his newly acquired powers, but he should’ve taken advantage of his day off to catch up with his childhood friend.

With the woman he loved.

He saw the sheen of tears in Iris’ eyes as she looked away.

“Hey Iris, hey,” he whispered, getting his other hand out of its pocket to gently cup the exposed side of her neck, and he used the knuckles of his already free hand to bring her face back towards him.

“I didn’t mean to shout at you like that, I’m so sorry Iris,” Barry apologized straight away, adjusting the hand on her neck to wipe the lone tear that managed to escape from the most beautiful eyes he knew.

She sniffed and kept her gaze down, and now he felt like an ass for being nosy.

“I’m sorry for overreacting Iris, it’s just that, you’re my best friend and we’ve never kept secrets from each other,” he rambled to fill in her silence, overlooking his own white lie, “and I wasn’t expecting you not to answer right away, but I don’t have the right to just wake up after nine months and demand you share your personal life…”

“It was just a couple dates,” she insisted, her voice low and a bit shaky.

“Okay,” he acknowledged hesitantly.

“Eddie covered for Dad’s shifts a lot so that we could both visit you at STAR Labs, and I treated him to dinner at Frankie’s as a thank you,” Iris explained.

Barry felt ashamed for the surge of jealousy that took over him, when he should feel grateful that Joe’s partner had allowed him and Iris to visit him.

“It was my first time going out since you—since that day,” Iris added with another sniffle, and Barry took a step closer to her, tuning out the distant sound of sirens as he brought both hands to cup her face. “So I tried to enjoy myself. But I couldn’t. You weren’t there.”

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you for so long,” he apologized softly, resisting the urge to kiss her trembling lips.

“I missed you so much!” she cried as she threw herself at him, and as always his arms were ready to embrace her small frame.

For a second it was just him and Iris in their bubble, and Barry savored the moment, the vanilla scent of her perfume and the warmth of her body and the silkiness of her hair—

And the next second the sound of sirens was too loud to ignore, and Barry looked over Iris’ head to see several police cars chasing a black sedan. 

The black sedan was speeding over, racing straight towards Barry and Iris.

Barry used all the concentration he could muster in his panicked state to shuffle to the side at high speed, easily dragging Iris with him.

With him moving so fast, he actually had the time to see the face of the driver the police were chasing…

Clyde Mardon?

Leaving Iris behind, Barry sped along the road, catching up to Mardon.

He accidentally ripped open the passenger door, and the shock caused the criminal to veer off the road.

Barry lost his balance trying to get out of the way of the tumbling car, and crashed over the grass on the side of the road, thankful for the padding.

“Hey! Mardon!” he shouted at the thief, jogging back on the road to catch up with the fleeing man.

The robber stopped and turned around. 

For a second Barry was scared of the look of pure hatred in the criminal’s face, but then he remembered that he worked for the police. He wasn’t a cop, but he wasn’t a regular civilian either.

He’d always wanted to help people, to make sure that justice didn’t fail others the way it had failed his family. Now, with this speed, and his apparent fast healing?

He could be more than just a forensics scientist. He could physically stop bad guys.

Starting with Mardon.

However, a thick fog appeared out of nowhere, or rather out of the hands of the robber, and Barry lost track of him.

The sound of screeching tires made him instinctively run back towards the grass, and this time he hurt his back as he landed brutally on the grass.

He watched, helpless, as a car collided with Mardon’s and crashed a heartbeat later, the vehicle flying through the air and landing in an explosive sound.

Horrified, Barry stared as flames immediately erupted from the car, and had it not been for Iris finding him, he would’ve sat there on the grass, watching the paramedics retrieve the corpse of the person he had failed to save right after his realization that he could actually help people with his powers.

“That poor man,” Iris commented as she stood next to him. “The way that fog came in, I have never seen anything like it.”

“Barry! Iris!” Joe called, rushing towards them with a panicked look.

He reached towards Iris as soon as she was in arms range.

“I’m alright, Dad,” she reassured, her exasperation barely masked as she nodded.

But Joe’s attention had already moved on to Barry, who internally winced.

Right, how could he forget how overprotective Joe was of his only child? Nine months in a coma couldn’t have erased the fifteen years he’d spent with the West.

Though to be fair, Joe’s exaggerated worry over Iris had only started when she and Barry were sixteen. She had decided that she would become a cop the very same day Barry had expressed his desire to become a CSI, letting him know that she’d help him prove his father’s innocence.

“What the hell were you thinking—having her out there?” Joe shouted at him.

“No, no, no,” Iris tried to correct her father, but that just made him direct his anger at her.

“And I told _you_! When you see danger, you run the other way! You're not a cop!” the detective reminded his daughter.

“Because you wouldn’t _let me_!” Iris talked back.

“You’re damn right!” Joe exclaimed.

Barry didn’t have time to witness the nth time these two would bring out their greatest point of contention. 

Clyde Mardon, who had probably gained his abilities to control the weather the same way Barry had gained his speed, had to be stopped.

So Barry tried to tell Joe everything he’d learned glancing over the preliminary reports of the robbery at Gold City Bank, and other recent robberies in Central City, which coincided with unexplained meteorological events.

But it was clear that Joe didn’t believe a word Barry said, especially the part about Mardon being alive and having powers.

And it was his turn to have a shouting contest with Joe about _their_ point of contention: the circumstances of his mother’s death.

After Joe condescendingly asked him to ‘see things as they are’ yet again, Barry walked away, not surprised but still hurt by the unwillingness of his father figure to believe him.

“Barry!” Iris called out, and he slowed down to let her catch up with him.

“Not now, Iris, please,” he pleaded as he kept his head down.

“Barry, I believe you,” his best friend claimed, and Barry couldn't find true comfort in her words. 

Iris had always believed in his accounts of the events of that tragic night, she had always offered her support and trust when her father wouldn’t, but Barry suspected that it was out of solidarity for him.

“And I think I have a lead on finding evidence to prove you’re right about Mardon,” his best friend added more quietly.

Barry snapped his head in her direction, his eyes wide.

“Shh,” she hushed him before he could bombard her with questions, and conspicuously looked back at Joe and Eddie who were inspecting the perimeter of the accident.

“Wait, if you have information, you should tell Joe, or Captain Singh,” Barry encouraged her, but Iris just rolled her eyes.

“I don’t owe them anything,” she asserted as she frowned at him. “I’m a reporter now—”

“An intern,” Barry specified, but instead of the shoulder slap he expected when Iris raised her hand, her fingers ran along his hairline on the right side of his face.

“There’s blood, but where’s your wound?” she questioned, her frown getting deeper as she brought both hands on his face to gently bring his head down, squinting at him. “Shouldn’t we go to the hospital? Oh my god, Barry, you really shouldn’t be running around like that right after coming out of a coma!”

“I’m fine, Iris, really,” he assured her.

It was true. The mild head throb he’d had from falling hard had already disappeared, and his back was just mildly sore now, nothing his body couldn’t handle after his history of being manhandled by bullies.

“And how did you get so far so fast, anyway?” Iris interrogated as she looked around the crash site then back at him. “Your long legs are useless most days! And earlier you said you confronted Mardon… ”

Her eyebrows finally lifted from her frown only to rise to her hairline, and Barry saw the moment a crazy idea came to her mind.

“Did they experiment on you at S.T.A.R Labs?” she asked between her teeth, her contempt for the small team that had saved Barry’s life obvious.

“What? No, Iris!” Barry chided, keeping his voice down but pulling her along as he walked away from the accident site—more like a crime scene, and it irked him to know that Joe would definitely refuse to let him process the evidence—so they could find some privacy.

They ended up back at Jitters, and Iris almost embarrassed Barry by asking a new barista for a band aid—or maybe he wasn’t new, Barry hadn’t been at the coffee shop in nine months. He managed to distract her by paying for her favorite caffeinated drink, an Americano with an extra shot. He caved in when Iris made puppy eyes at him and added a cronut—those were new!—to the order. 

After paying and dropping the change in the donation jar—the most mundane thing he’d done all day, really—Barry stepped towards the bathroom, asking Iris to get them a good spot over his shoulder.

He perfunctorily washed his hands and cleaned the caked blood on his forehead, still amazed at his accelerated healing abilities. 

Wait, was he going to age faster too? He didn’t feel older, in fact he felt exactly the same, if he ignored the odd silent vibration around him that he intermittently took note of. Lieutenant Johnson had said that Barry looked just as young as before his coma, too.

Well, a worry for another day, in any case. Right now he had to tell Iris about his powers, and he expected that she would confirm the theory he had about how Mardon had gotten powers, just like him.

“Hey I left you some,” Iris told him as she pushed the last third of her cronut towards him as he sat down across from her.

Barry’s stomach growled in response, which made Iris giggle.

Ignoring his unexpected hunger—which was getting annoying—Barry marveled at his best friend’s illuminated face.

God knew he’d tried to fall out of love with Iris. When his crush started forming embarrassing thoughts about her at age fourteen, Barry had spent a whole school year researching the science behind love. He’d been disappointed that there were more psychology books than real science books on the subject, but he’d read for hours trying to figure out the logic behind his ever growing attraction for his childhood friend.

The more he read about the science of love, the less it made sense to the then aspiring scientist.

A bachelor of science and a masters in criminology later, Barry still maintained that his love for Iris West couldn’t be explained by science. It defied logic, to still hold hope for being with her when he knew beyond reasonable doubt that there was no chance that Iris would ever see him as more than her childhood friend and her father’s charity case.

“So,” Iris said, bringing him out of his musing. “I’ve been keeping a blog—”

“Not about your obsession for brownies, I hope, because no one needs to know about that,” Barry joked.

“Hey!” she exclaimed, shoving his shoulder as she shook her head at him. “No, silly, about… Unexplainable events going around Central City.”

She had said the last sentence quietly, so Barry leaned forward in his seat to hear her better—and to admire her beauty from a better vantage point, whatever, sue him.

“See, from what I’ve gathered, they all started the night of the particle accelerator explosion,” she resumed, her face serious, her voice solemn.

“Iris,” he said, just because her name was the only thing that his vocal chords could work out in his shock.

Dr. Wells hadn’t said anything about the explosion causing anything other than the death and physical injuries of people. He’d said that Barry was one of a kind, but after Mardon, Barry knew that wasn’t true.

“I’ll show you later if you want, it’s all at my apartment,” Iris insisted. “Barry, something fishy is going on at S.T.A.R Labs. If your life hadn’t been in danger, we’d never let Harrison Wells lay a finger on you, but the fact that he alone was able to help when no medical expert could? How could he know how to care for you? He’s a theoretical physicist, not a physician!”

“He’s not alone,” Barry informed her, his thoughts going to Cisco and Caitlin.

Those two had seemed nice, and genuinely concerned about him. Caitlin was a physician, right? Wait, no, she said she was a bioengineer. However brilliant she could be, she was clearly a researcher, but she could also be an M.D.

Cisco was clearly a mechanical engineer, which meant that he could easily be a physicist too. Still not a medical doctor.

Damn. He’d basically been a lab rat for nine months! 

“If you’re talking about Cisco and Caitlin, I’ve met them,” Iris told him as she eyed the last piece of the cronut.

Barry picked the dessert himself, slowly bringing it to his mouth to make sure she watched, then dropped the whole piece in his mouth. 

The mocking smile he wore over his full mouth disappeared slowly when he noticed Iris’ expression.

She wasn’t annoyed at his teasing, nor sad that he hadn’t let her finish the treat.

Unless Barry was hallucinating—who knew, it wouldn’t be the craziest thing happening to him today—his best friend was looking at him in a way she’d never done before.

Her pupils were blown out, and although it made sense for her to stare at his lips, it didn’t make sense that she looked hungry…for _him_.

“Iris,” Barry stupidly called the second he had swallowed the last mouthful of the cronut, and the fact that she had stared at him for this long gave him hope.

“Huh? What?” Iris asked as she pulled away from the table and sat tall in her seat, glancing at the menu items on the blackboard above the cashier counter.

Barry blinked as he detected a faint blush on her cheeks, which on her dark skin meant that a lot of blood had migrated to her head, which meant that she was embarrassed like he’d never seen her before—okay, the one time he’d walked on her in the bathroom when they were thirteen was probably still both their number one most embarrassing moment _ever_ —and she was touching her hair, not just flipping it but petting it, and her hand even a little shaky.

“Iris,” that was the third time he called her name in less than ten minutes, but he couldn’t help it.

“Yeah,” she answered shyly, looking back at him for a fraction of a second before focusing on her cup of coffee.

“Yeah, so I know about Caitlin and Cisco working with Wells,” she said carefully, her eyes still on her drink, “but they’re okay, my reporter’s gut feeling doesn’t go off when I see them. Dr. Wells, on the other side… Dad feels that he’s suspicious, too. I know he saved your life, but—”

“I have powers,” Barry blurted out, though quietly enough for the oddest conversation they’d ever had to remain private.

“What?” Iris mouthed more than she said, her widened eyes shifting to his.

They stared at each other for a minute or two, and Barry wanted to talk about something else, about the elephant in the room, but he also needed to tell her about his powers.

Maybe telling her his secret would compel her to share hers? If there indeed was a secret. That involved her having feelings for him.

“What powers? Like Mardon?” Iris asked as she leaned over, and with disappointment Barry saw that her eyes were now shining with inquisitive curiosity.

Whatever moment they’d just had had passed, and he was the reason for it. 

Self-sabotage, Allen. Well done.

“No, more like, super speed?” he told her. “And accelerated metabolism, I guess, I heal fast and get hungry even faster.”

“Your head, that’s why… ” Iris half-stated with a nod. “And you being able to chase Mardon who was in a car. Oh my god, Barry!”

She’d said that a bit louder, drawing a few glances from other customers.

“Barry,” she repeated more quietly as she grabbed his hand, “we don’t even need to build a solid case to show Dad. You are a living proof that all the impossible things what you said about your mom’s murder _are_ possible! You can help free your dad! Barry!”

Barry watched tears fill Iris’ eyes with a gradually blurry vision. He watched her smile in relief and elation, and there was a little bit of victory in the way her hand intermittently squeezed his, like when he’d won a prize at the science fair competition in tenth grade.

Barry let out a little laugh when he felt his abnormally fast heart swell up in his chest.

Really, how could this be science? He’d just fallen in love with Iris West all over again. 

* * *

As he watched Barry Allen barrage him with questions and make demands of reparation, Eobard reflected that he’d thankfully killed the wrong person fourteen years ago.

Nora Allen’s death had not changed Barry Allen’s path to heroism. Fortunately for the trapped time traveler, the traumatised young boy had grown into a brilliant and courageous young man who was willing to put his newfound abilities to the service of the people.

It was convenient for Thawne, but still pathetic. All that potential, and Allen wanted to waste it on apprehending petty criminals.

“The people need to know what’s happening in the city, Dr. Wells,” she said firmly.

Ah, Iris West-Allen. Well, not quite yet, but Eobard didn’t need to be from the future to know that the young journalist and the young CSI were well on their way to the wedding aisle. Barry Allen would definitely still marry his childhood crush in this new timeline.

From where the powerless speedster came from, the love between Barry Allen and Iris West was as legendary in private as the Flash’s reputation had been in public. The Gold Standard, their descendants called them. Eobard had almost killed the couple’s entire family for filling him with inane stories of romance about these two.

He’d almost rejected the idea that the unremarkable CSI, whose only passion aside from helping putting away bad guys was indulging his lovely wife, was truly the fastest man alive. It wasn’t until further research that the time traveler had discovered that a few of The Flash's lesser enemies had used the intrepid reporter to bait the Scarlet Speedster.

The confirmation of his enemy’s identity had led him to this primitive time: the early twenty-first century. Even after living there for fourteen years, Thawne was unimpressed. They still had printed books, for heaven’s sake! And this stupid wheelchair! How come he still needed to press buttons to move such an unsophisticated piece of machinery around? It blew his mind that this was the best money could buy. Eobard had hoped that thought-controlled wheelchairs would be available to at least a selective few, but the development of that technology was still at its infancy in 2014.

At least now he wouldn’t have to wait long before he could return to his time. With Iris as his driving force, Cisco and Caitlin as his allies, and Eobard himself as his reluctant mentor, Barry Allen would be able to develop enough of his potential as a speedster to generate the amount of speed force Eobard needed to steal.

“You’re right, I must atone for my mistakes,” the time traveler said aloud, to the shock of everyone in the room.

“You—you agree?” Barry asked dumbly, exchanging a glance with his almost-girlfriend.

“Does that mean that I can show him the other suit?” Ramon chirped.

The boy was brilliant, but too bubbly for Eobard’s liking. He could admit to himself that he’d eventually miss him, though. There was no one in his time who showed him the proper amount of respect that Francisco Ramon did.

“What other suit?” Allen asked, Ramon’s excitement rubbing off on him.

With Harrison Wells’ face, Eobard sighed and gave the young men the permission to go test out the suit.

Caitlin followed the boys, and for a while Thawne was given the unique opportunity to observe his enemy’s future wife openly. 

Iris Ann West, born June 24, 1989. Slightly above average cognitive processing potential, most of which she’d wasted being a social butterfly in secondary school and tertiary education.

Raised by her single father Joseph West, unaware that her biological mother was still alive though in rapidly deteriorating health. One unacquainted sibling, biological younger brother Wallace Rudolph West.

For years Miss West had aspired to join the Police, but had settled for a career in investigative journalism, which she’d started mere weeks ago. She was officially no threat to Eobard, but he could tell from the way she looked at him that it wouldn’t take long for her to become a force to be reckoned with—to become the founder of the Central City Citizen, a leading journalistic institution still going strong at the end of the twenty-second century.

There was no indication that Iris West-Allen was a meta-human, but she needed not have superpowers to be taken seriously. Though she practiced unfrequently since college, Iris was an adequate boxer, and knew sufficient self-defense techniques to hold her own against the average petty criminal. Again, she could have been a better-rounded fighter had she not wasted her free time engaging in less practical activities. Her marksmanship was superior to the majority of recorded civilian gun owners in the country. 

Presently, Eobard was more worried about Miss West’s penmanship. To his knowledge she was still an intern at CCPN, but if her blog was any indication, she didn’t need her employers’ permission to share the truth with the world. He had to make sure that she didn’t uncover his identity before he could claim Barry’s speed. There was something about her, an unquantifiable value to this diminutive woman, that made Eobard wary of her. Before he got rid of Barry Allen, he would make sure to kill Iris West in front of him.

“What do you think?” Barry’s voice resonated in the cortex as he walked in, suited in what was close but not quite identical to the Flash costume Thawne was familiar with.

Iris’ eyes abandoned their scrutiny of Eobard to give an appreciative look at her life-long friend.

“If I didn’t already know it was you, I wouldn’t be able to tell,” she assessed critically. “Is that leather?”

“Reinforced tri-polymer, excuse me!” Cisco answered flippantly as he walked in, closely followed by Caitlin. “We’re ready for preliminary testing!”

“Preliminary?” Barry repeated. “Mardon is out there wrecking havoc, I need to be ready to stop him from hurting more people today!”

“We still don’t know how your body is dealing with all the stress you’re putting it through by using your speed,” Caitlin pointed out sternly before Eobard himself could come up with an argument to reign in the young speedster’s zeal.

“I have accelerated cellular regeneration, you’ve said it yourself,” Barry countered.

“Which is reassuring to know as you begin your training, but not a reason to throw yourself into the fray of vigilantism prematurely,” Eobard asserted.

“But we need to stop Mardon!” Allen insisted, raising his voice.

“Can’t you guys figure out how to stop that criminal without risking _Barry’s life_?” Iris intervened. “You’re all very smart, and this guy’s powers seem simpler than Barry’s. I mean, people manipulate the weather right? NASA can, and they make artificial rains in China…”

“Iris,” Barry said, and it was fascinating how much meaning the young man could convey with the utterance of the two syllables.

“Barry, you just woke up from a coma, like, _today_ !” was Miss West’s reply. “This ‘other suit’ is clearly not the _first_ one you’ve tried on…”

The journalist eyed menacingly who she thought was Harrison Wells as she said the word first.

“And if the doctor who helped save your life says that you need more tests to make sure you’re truly in perfect health, I say listen to her!” Iris finished.

“I’m fine!” Barry objected vehemently, and Eobard sighed as he smelled the distinct scent of a lover’s quarrel brewing in the air.

“You could be Oliver Queen’s level of fine, I’d still say that you need to wait and make sure your coma won’t bring any long-term complications,” the journalist deadpanned as she crossed her arms.

“I don’t need your permission to put my _own_ life in danger!” Allen almost shouted, making Cisco pause in his chewing of his strawberry Twizzler and Caitlin look up from pretending to read the medical reports on her tablet.

To Thawne’s surprise, Iris West’s waxing anger fell abruptly, betrayal coloring her wide eyes as she unfolded her arms.

The time-traveler didn’t need to glance at Barry to know that the young man regretted his words. The silence that settled between the two childhood friends was charged with unsaid words.

“Iris,” Barry said nevertheless, the name now conveying remorse.

“Fine,” Miss West spat cruelly, rejecting the unformulated apology, “do whatever you want with _your_ life!” she added as she stepped backward towards the exit. “It’s not like I’ve been a part of it for over fifteen years or anything, right?”

“Iris!” Barry repeated, his tone approximating despair as he took tentative steps towards his love interest.

“Have fun training with your _new friends_ ,” the journalist said with a dismissive hand wave before glaring at Thawne. “Dr. Wells, it was illuminating seeing you again.”

“Indeed, Miss West,” he couldn’t help replying. “You are welcome to visit again, of course,” he added as the young woman squinted her eyes at him.

“We’ll see,” she said quietly before turning around and walking out, leaving an immobile Barry behind.

Quite the feat, grounding a speedster without exercising any physical power on him.

Truly, there was something about Iris West that couldn’t be adequately assessed by science.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments are always appreciated! Season 1 is so far away it's insane. I'm happy that my then favorite show is still running, though nowadays I'm struggling to watch the episodes.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [You See I Try To Be Cool, But The Problem Is Using My Emotions Up](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27554236) by [Asukachan07](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asukachan07/pseuds/Asukachan07)




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